The World’s Best Universities For Employment In 2016

It’s great to attend university to delve deeply into a field of study that you’re passionate about. But, at the end of the day, it’s also helpful to know that when you finish your years of higher education at a reputable institution, you will emerge with a degree that will give you a good chance of securing a job. Times Higher Education (THE), a U.K.-based publication that ranks learning institutions, recently released its sixth annual list of schools that produce graduates most sought-after by employers. In forming its rankings, THE used results from an online survey of 2,500 recruitment managers in 20 countries and a second panel of 3,500 international managers around the world. We folded the top-10 into a slideshow, which you can view below.

“In a year of huge political upheaval,” said THE rankings editor Phil Baty with the release of the survey results, “where young students have witnessed Brexit and the unexpected election of Donald Trump as U.S. President, many will seek the relative safety of a university with a strong track record of producing graduates who are valued by large, international graduate employers.”

Universities in the United States dominate this year’s results. Of the top ten schools on the list of those whose graduates are most sought after by hiring managers, six are based in the U.S. – including the top three—while U.S. schools make up 16 of the top 50. (For a full ranking of top U.S. schools on the employability ranking, scroll to the end of this post).

One of the performers on this year’s ranking was Harvard University. In THE’s ranking of the top schools in the world, Harvard placed sixth. On the employability ranking this year, it came in third place.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) placed second on the employability ranking. The school came in fifth overall when placed alongside the world’s top schools.

The number one school on THE’s list of most employable graduates was the California Institute of Technology. On the global ranking of all around best schools on the world it placed second, right behind Oxford University in the U.K.

The THE World University Rankings this year showed that Japanese universities have struggled to keep a dominant hold on the rankings in Asia, says Baty, but the employability ranking shows their graduates have retained the interest of hiring managers and employers. “Five Japanese universities make it into the Global University Employability Ranking, with both the University of Tokyo and Tokyo Institute of Technology making the top 20,” Baty explained. “This suggests some Japanese universities have maintained their ability to provide their graduates with strong employment prospects.”